March on, Worker Bees!
by Psychicbyinternet
Summary: A short one-chapter story about a completely transformed Duel Academy where Jaden finds Syrus enslaved in "the Hive": a military organization consisting of all Ra Yellows.  Characters  in order of prominence : Jaden, Syrus, Hassleberry, Bastion


Hi Kids and kids-at-heart who still love to read about children's card games. This story is basically a military fantasy. It was inspired by the song "Worker Bees" by Billy Talent (from their album "Billy Talent III").

Jaden walked through the Duel Island forest; starving, fatigued and hallucinating. All of a sudden, he dropped to his knees near a tree and closed his eyes. Immediately, he woke up.

"Where am I?"

Jaden checked out his surroundings and grunted as he pulled himself up, feeling a jolt of pain.

"Whoa, what hit me?"

He then realized he was in an enormous city and right in front of him stood countless soldiers in sturdy, yellow uniforms with great big stingers. It also seemed as if they were guarding some kind of hive. They were marching around the palace-sized dwelling and chanting, "Protect the hive from enemies!" as well as "Follow the herd mentality!"

As he stood up he could feel the rain on his face. To his surprise, one soldier cried, "Halt!" as the entire swarm came to a dead stop.

"March!" he cried.

"Heh, this guy must be head honcho or something," Jaden thought. Then he noticed that the swarm was headed toward him.

"Uh oh!"

The leader spoke in a heavy, authoritarian Texan accent, "What are you doin' over here, private? Get back in line!"

Jaden recognized this masked soldier's voice but just couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Hey, uh, sir, what's your name?"

"That's the dumbest remark I've ever heard! Y'all know my name! Unless…" he mulled it over for a few seconds, "Yer an intruder – the enemy!"

"Wait, no, I've got nothing but love for… bees, honestly!" Jaden exclaimed.

"Well, then, why, in heaven's name, are you in enemy uniform?" the leader cried, quite exasperated.

"Huh?" Jaden looked at his Slifer red uniform, "You don't like Slifers? And you aren't blues?"

"ENEMY TERMINOLOGY!" he yelled.

Jaden scratched his head, "This is getting weirder and weirder.

"That's it!" the soldier grabbed Jaden's arm.

"Wait!" he was cut off by a high-pitched male voice. Jaden and the whole army turned to the source of the sound. It was a small light blue-haired soldier, face flushed red. He bowed several times, and quavered, "General Hassleberry, sir!"

Jaden thought for a moment, "Hassleberry… Hassleberry… nope, doesn't ring a bell!"

"What is it, Private Truesdale?" the leader asked impatiently.

"Hey!" Jaden recognized the small bee, "It's Sy!"

"You two soldiers know each other?"

"Yes, sir!" Syrus saluted, "He's been lost for a long time without, uh, food, sir, and he has no memories of his days as a private, sir! Perhaps I could refresh his memory, sir!"

The general had already made his way over to the small private, and he said , just loud enough for everyone to hear, "Cutting it a little close, eh, Truesdale?"

The boy's expression turned to absolute dread.

"Go ahead, soldier!" he cried, "Off with you!" Syrus heaved a deep sigh.

"Hope you'll move up in the ranks some century!" Hassleberry laughed hysterically.

Realizing this was a joke, made by their general, the entire army laughed as hysterically as they could. Syrus blushed again and looked down as he headed over to Jaden. His posture sunk. He bowed his head and didn't say a word until they were inside the hive and squished into a narrow honeycomb.

"Have you ever heard so much yelling in your life? They must have to drink a lot of tea." Jaden said, to break the silence.

Syrus shrugged and sighed.

"Sy, you haven't been working on that confidence."

"Yeah, well, Hassleberry's a walking stink bomb anyway. I don't think he believes in showers, or at least standing under the water."

"Whatever you say, Sy. Uh, by the way, where are we?"

"Oh sorry, Jay. Boy have I got some explaining to do…" he heaved a sigh, "Well, first of all, I'm a private in the army of the worker bees, the lowest there is, just like you. We all work for the queen bee – that girl I beat in order to move up to Ra Yellow."

"Oh, yeah, what was her name again?"

"It doesn't matter. I hate her. I'd rather not remember," Syrus seethed.

"Anyway," he continued, "she came back and dueled all the Ras, starting with me, and now she is Queen Bee of what we call "the Hive" – our organization, which is against Duel Academy entirely. Not only does she have every Ra in Duel Academy, but she tries to snatch anyone and everyone on Duel Island!"

"Even me?"

"Well, yeah!"

"So then, with no Ras, there are only two dorms, right?"

"Uh, no, there is Slifer Red, Dark Magician Purple (a new dorm), Obelisk Blue and the Society of Light."

"That damned Chazz…"

"Yup."

"What about Bastion. Is he here, too?"

"Oh yeah, he's just a step away from General," Syrus growled.

"Looks like you don't like this military thing too much, Sy."

"I wouldn't say that! No studying, not too much stress, no dueling, a nice, cozy honeycomb, lots of honey, oh, and did I mention no dueling? I think it's worth a little daily teasing!"

Jaden was dumbstruck, "How could you say that?"

"But…"

"No dueling, Sy! And to be bullied, too! We're getting out of here!"

Jaden tugged his friend's arm, but Syrus pulled away.

"I'm sorry, Jay, but if you're going to be the enemy I have to treat you like it. Just join up with me, ok? They'll just destroy a little bit of Duel Academy a day!"

"What?"

"Uh, nothing."

"They're destroying Duel Academy? That's their plan? Sy! You gotta tell me these things!"

"Will you join or not?"

"Sy, dueling can be fun, please, just think this over!"

"Jaden, I have to obey her laws," he sighed.

"Don't you see? I'm a coward," his lips quivered. He began to cry. Jaden gingerly hugged him.

"There, there. I can help you be brave. It's not so hard."

Syrus sobbed harder, muffled by Jaden's jacket.

"You know, Sy. The bravest people are the people who are terrified of doing something brave, but they do it anyway. Even I get scared sometimes, but I just push on."

Jaden felt the boy's hands grip harder on his arms and then release. Syrus pulled away from the hug, his eyes still red and wet.

"I… can't… do… it." He looked at Jaden, trying not to meet his eyes, and then turned around to reveal his stinger, "Join us."

"Alright, then. But you're going to have to grow a pair someday. If that's the only way..."

Syrus nodded, wiping his eyes.

"Fine. I'll join."

"Oh thank you, Jaden!" Syrus gushed and hugged his friend, "I really didn't have the heart to sting anyway."

Jaden fished through his pocket until he found a few small capsules.

"Hey, that reminds me, Sy… you were saying earlier that you had a headache or something?"

"I wasn't talking about it, but as a matter of fact I do!" he answered.

"Oh, well, I just remembered that I've got some Advil in my pocket. Here you are."

Jaden held out his hand, holding two tablets. Syrus took them and swallowed them, swiftly falling to the ground, not asleep, not dead, just unconscious.

"Sorry about that, Sy."

Jaden climbed out of the honeycomb, dragging the body with him.

"Stop!" a voice with a British accent bellowed. It was Bastion, in full bee attire, "As Colonel Misawa, I demand to know what you are doing with that private's dead remains!"

"Erm, he's not dead, he's just taking a little nap. It's pretty hard explaining everything that has happened so far to someone as dim-witted as me!" Jaden lied.

"You may have a point there. Carry on!"

"That was close!" Jaden said, once Bastion was out of earshot. He left the hive and immediately encountered the same army he met before he entered the hive. He came up with several lame, far-fetched excuses as to why he was lugging a seemingly dead soldier around their hive and finally escaped without a scratch.

"Sweet! To Duel Academy!"

When he arrived at Duel Academy, Syrus woke up and slapped him in the face.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"You tricked me! I didn't want to go, but you made me!" he looked upset, "You won't make me duel, you can't make me!" He was shrieking as he violently tugged Jaden's collar.

"You can't make me duel! You can't make me! You can't!"

Jaden woke up in a cold sweat. He saw that it was morning in the Slifer dorm.

"Whoa! What a weird dream."

"Morning, private!" Tyranno chimed.

Then it hit him. Jaden realized that the general was his friend Tyranno. As he explained everything in the dream to his roommates, he secretly hoped that this would never happen in real life.

"Hey, Sy, wanna duel?"

"You bet!"

They both grabbed their duel disks and ran outdoors. Something told him that dreams were always dreams, no matter what…

OR WERE THEY?

Fin


End file.
